No More Dream: Jimin's Trainee Story ✔

Chapter Sixteen: Lessons

March 2013

Today they worked in small groups again. This time they were doing harder dances that challenged Jimin more in a way that made him smile again and remember how much he loved dancing. These same dances were much harder for JK and V to master, so it cheered Jimin to excel at something. In the afternoon they were supposed to work individually to improve their dances together. Jimin worked with Tae and JK, and to his surprise they matched his intensity. He realized again that that was one thing that made V and JK great friends for him...they both had insane energy levels and intensity also, they could meet Jimin where he was at.

And the harder they worked that day, the more they did. When the instructor came in to watch them, they were so excited to show how much they had improved in just one day. But as the dance ended, his eyes narrowed critically and he said little, a ball of lead dropped into Jimin's stomach as he told them only that they would come to him for individual lessons tomorrow.

The boys were nervous that night and V charmed a manager into buying them a bottle of wine. A bottle is good, thought Jimin, we shouldn't be hung over tomorrow.

They passed it between them, letting the anxieties of the day relax from their bodies. This time JK fell asleep first, and Jimin climbed under the covers beside him, deciding that tomorrow he DID want to wake up next to JK. He struggled to stay awake, so he could keep looking at the way his mouth parted, at the way he breathed. He dreamt well that night.

The wake up call woke him though, and JK had already bounded out of bed.

Today is our individual lessons, Jimin thought with dread.

All the trainees met in the dance practice room, everyone instructed to free dance as the teacher moved among them giving notes. JK was the first one pulled for individual lessons.

Jimin swallowed hard.

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JUNGKOOK: 

Jungkook was excited to work with the instructor first even though it was nerve wracking. Something had changed inside him, just yesterday, working with Jimin-Hyung and Tae-Hyung at the small group dance.

Dancing had always been moves to him, different moves that went with the dance. But to Jimin it was different. His body seemed to pulse with the music. When Jungkook watched him dance he forgot about everything. He didn't notice how well Jimin did each move. His body became a vessel for the energy of the song, for the emotion of the song.

Jungkook swallowed hard. That's why they kicked him out of the group, he thought to himself. Because when the rest of us stand next to him we look like amateurs. Because we are bad dancers he is getting punished.   His heart prickled with endless guilt.  

Yesterday, working closely with Jimin, being taught by him, Jungkook felt a difference in his dancing already, somehow. He was untrained but he felt like Jimin had awakened something inside him, an ability to be a vessel for the music.

He walked into the room with the dance instructor purposeful.  He wasn't going to hold Jimin back anymore.

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Tae and JK had both had their individual lessons in the morning, so Jimin got to talk to them about it at lunchtime.

JK seemed to be slightly uncommunicative, seemed like he had a little secret, which bugged Jimin. "What are you hiding?" he said with playful accusation....but JK just laughed and said the lesson was really good. Tae gave more details about how the instructor worked with him, which made Jimin feel slightly more prepared.

After lunch, he was the first one to go.

His lesson was the weirdest thing he had ever experienced. They played him different music and asked him to "be" different emotions. Sometimes the instructor came up behind him, asked him to pause, and seemed to wait for Jimin to relax in a certain way... he would reshape his body so that every muscle that wasn't taut was relaxed.

They had Jimin switch from intense high energy dance to very slow dance, almost like Taichi, at the drop of a hat. The music would go from fast to slow and Jimin had to adapt instantly. They had him start from being completely still, and do a slow relaxed dance at a 1, then repeat it at a 2, now do it super intense and fast, at a ten. Now do a 3. Now do a 5.

Jimin left trembling. His individual lesson was not like V's. Every muscle ached.

He could barely make it down the hall. As he stumbled into the hotel room, JK and Tae looked up in concern. "Are you okay?"

"Hard practice today." Jimin muttered as his legs buckled under him. 

JK and Tae seemed to relax. "Oh yeah, us too, what did they have you do?"

Jimin tried to say: "Dance slowly" but he was asleep before the words left his mouth.

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One perk to going to bed early was that he woke up first, to Jungkook still sleeping like an angel in his bed. Jimin decided his body was too tired to fight his mind, and his hand moved silently under the blanket until he sighed with relief.